Nickel sulfide-oxide heterostructured electrocatalysts: Bi-functionality for overall water splitting and in-situ reconstruction

Bi-functional electrocatalysts are desired for both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER). Herein, facile O 2 -plasma activation is introduced to improve the bi-functionality via constructing nickel sulfide-oxide heterostructures . Ni 3 S 2 -NiO x supported by nickel foam delivers obviously elevated HER and OER activity in comparison with pristine Ni 3 S 2 and recently reported NiS x -based electrocatalysts , featured by the low overpotentials for HER (104 mV) and OER (241 mV) at ±10 mA cm −2 in 1.0 M KOH, as well as a voltage of 1.52 V for overall water splitting. As revealed by in-situ Raman spectroscopy , on the one hand, Ni(OH) 2 generated from Ni 3 S 2 during alkaline HER accelerates water dissociation toward the gradually improved performance; on the other hand, this heterostructure undergoes extensive oxidation during OER, leading to excessive NiOOH covering on Ni 3 S 2 and thereby declining activity. These changes are interpreted by the distinct thermodynamic relationship under specific electrochemical conditions via density functional theory calculations.